The present invention relates to a joint and more specifically to a joint having relatively movable parts and an elastomeric bearing disposed between the parts.
Joints having relatively movable parts and a bearing therebetween are known. The bearing carries the load transmitted between the parts. The joint may be used in an application where the load tending to move the parts in a first relative direction can be relatively large while the load tending to move the parts in a second relative direction can be relatively small. Bearings have been developed to handle the load variation described above.
Specifically, a known bearing made of two separate pieces is disposed between the parts. One piece of the bearing, made of a relatively hard material such as nylon, is disposed between the parts and carries the load acting in the first direction of relative movement of the parts. The other piece of the bearing, made of a relatively resilient rubber-like material, is disposed between the parts and transmits the loads in the second direction of relative movement of the parts. Such a bearing is disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 815,675, filed Jan. 2, 1986 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,940 which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 726,135, filed Apr. 23, 1985 now abandoned and is assigned to the assignee of the present application and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,778.
Also, joints having relatively movable parts and an elastomeric bearing therebetween are known. U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,272 is one example. To applicant's knowledge, a joint having a totally elastomeric bearing constructed to handle the load variation described above is not known.